The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Many machine tool installations are operated under numerical control (NC) to produce high-precision items such as aircraft parts. In such installations, a multi-axis machine may be software-driven to move one or more machine tools relative to a work piece. A multi-axis kinematic linkage of the machine is capable of moving a tool relative to a plurality of predetermined coordinate axes. Specifically, a plurality of translational and/or rotational joints may be operable singly and/or cooperatively to move one or more links to position a tool at a desired location. Occasionally, however, a multi-axis linkage may be moved to a position (“singularity”, or “singular point”) in which one or more degrees of freedom are lost. At a singular point, one or more joints may be incapable of moving a tool as instructed by the software.